"No.  The real answer.  That's my price for even considering it."

"It's an answer that could be used against me.  I'd want you to say that you won't pass it on, to anyone else, or use it against me."

"You're aware that Security still reads our minds, right?"

"I'm aware."

"Then sure."

"There's something that I want to protect, even if protecting that thing serves Asmodeus, who I hate."

"Thaaaat's not much of an answer."

"But it's the true answer, and even if Security is reading our minds, I'd rather I do my own best not to think about specifics, and not have you thinking about it every five minutes too."

"Enjoy your cake, Asmodia.  It's the last piece you'll be getting."

Pilar turns and heads out of Asmodia's bedroom.

"Acceptable," Asmodia says to her empty bedroom.

So.  Would Snack Service care to amplify on how Pilar could be that powerful?  Sell her soul to Cayden Cailean, maybe?  Is this where she finally gets pitched to come over to the Light Side, the Light Side has cookies?

Has Pilar ever wondered why there aren't more oracles, if gods like Cayden Cailean and Nethys can just go around cursing Lawful Evil Asmodeans with curses that work to their own advantage?

Actually no, Pilar failed to notice her confusion about that.

It's because the gods can't take the powers back, and the people cursed ultimately get to choose how to use the power that comes with the curse!

Now that Pilar is actually thinking about it, this does not seem like enough of a reason.  You could try for curses that were just inconvenient to start with, and maybe just not let the oracle level...

...

Yep!  That's right!  Once a god chooses an oracle, they can't stop the oracle from leveling!  If the oracle figures out how, they can just grab the power away from the god!  Don't want to spare the power to make your oracle ninth-circle?  Too bad!  Once you've chosen an oracle, and the oracle has earned that much power, they get to take the power to become ninth-circle whether you like that or not!  You'll just have to unchoose a lot of your other clerics!

That's where Erecura actually came from, by the way!  Onnnneee time Pharasma tried choosing an oracle of Her own!  Then by the time Erecura finished ripping Pharasma's power away from Her, Erecura had turned into a god Herself, so Pharasma cursed Her to stay in Hell, and Erecura managed to seduce Dispater and get a garden there for Herself etcetera etcetera.

And how do oracles get more power, then?

Besides their god just giving it to them?  The way oracles earn more power is... actually sort of a god-concept but, roughly, by predicting things correctly in a way that changes the future.  There's a sort of extra bonus if you predict the future in a way that makes that future happen.  Like when Pilar predicted that Keltham wouldn't be kidnapped by Rovagug cultists, in a way that changed the future and made him not be kidnapped by Rovagug cultists!

You could think of oracles as maintainers of Prophecy.  And even with Prophecy shattered, the rules laid down for oracles are still operating, it's just harder for oracles to do the thing they do.

Pilar has arguably been doing quite a lot of predictions that caused other events to happen, and Pilar hasn't gotten any more oracle circles that she's noticed.

Yep!  Because Pilar has been inside Broom's god's nonintervention zone, so even if it's cheaper to empower Pilar more now that she's earned it, Cayden Cailean couldn't do that!  Even when Pilar was in Egorian to do spy sweeps, Cayden Cailean couldn't give Pilar the power she'd earned, because Cayden Cailean would've been doing that with the intent to affect events inside the nonintervention zone!

Otherwise Pilar would've totally been doing some pretty impressive oracle work.

But Pilar can, apparently, just seize this power for herself.

Yep!  If she knows how!

...and what does Pilar need to do for Cayden Cailean to be told how?

Come on!  Pilar knows that's not the sort of relationship Pilar has with Cayden Cailean!  He's not Asmodeus!

But it totally does involve Pilar embracing the power of her curse, and the purpose of her curse, and her embracing that she wants and needs to be more powerful in order to fulfill the purpose of her curse.

Which - Pilar's curse being what it is - does totally mean that, to tear Cayden Cailean's divine power away from Him, Pilar needs to call on the power of friendship, in order to protect her friends!